


A Modest Proposal

by Moron1



Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy Era, Basically Sakura interns with the Corpse Disposal Unit and also is a cannibal, Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Corpse Desecration, Corpses, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Interns & Internships, probably SakuIno in the future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-01-02 12:31:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21161708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moron1/pseuds/Moron1
Summary: “Why waste good meat?”Working title: Actual Cannibal Haruno Sakura





	1. A Bloody Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> If descriptions of blood, guts, and cannibalism disturb you, you might not want to read. Because that's the premise of this fic.

Ever since she was just a little girl, Sakura knew that she was different. She didn’t flinch at the sight of blood or injury, something her teachers praised her for. They would have had to train any reaction out of her anyway and having a pre-conditioned student only served to make their lives easier, at least in the short term.

One of the girls in her class sliced open her thumb on a kunai one afternoon, and Sakura was the closest to her. She helped the girl out, of course, applying pressure to the wound and bandaging it tightly, but it was only when she was sent to wash the blood off her hands that something changed.

Sakura stared at the dark red stains on her hands, the same color as cherry juice but with the heady scent of iron. It dried tacky, in long streaks that cascaded down her hands. She stared hard at the blood, lost in thought.

_ What would it be like… to taste it? _

She raised a tentative hand up to her mouth, giving her palm a quick kitten lick.

It tasted surprisingly good, and without any thought she brought her hand back up to her mouth, absently suckling on her blood-covered fingers.

She was almost lost in the sensation when she heard shouting, the loud squabbling of some of the girls in her class who were heading into the bathroom. Heading into the bathroom that she was currently in, licking someone else’s blood off of her fingers.

Sakura snapped out of her daze and stuck her hands under the faucet, scrubbing furiously. She was cleaning out the only remaining blood off her hands, the parts that had accumulated under her nails, by the time the gaggle of girls had managed to make their way inside.

~:~

Sakura tried not to think of people as meat. She really did. But sometimes she sat in her body-disposal class and frowned at how much… waste it was. Why waste what you could just eat?

~:~

Sakura was dubbed “the creepy girl” by the time she was in her second year at the academy, and relegated to the social status of the likes of Aburame Shino, Akimichi Chouji, and Uzumaki Naruto. You’d think that ninja-in-training would be more accepting of differences when it came to the clan kids at least, but children are cruel and none of the boys ever bothered to change their opinions.

She expected that she’d have to buckle down and make friends with the others down on the lower end of the social stratosphere, but to her surprise, even with the massive popularity downgrade, Ino stuck with her.

Ino was stubborn and refused to stop hanging out with Sakura just because other people wouldn’t.

It was only one of the things that made Ino so great.

~:~

During her third year at the academy, the teachers announced the implementation of an internship program. People were to choose their own internships, but there were limited spots in the “good ones”, or rather every internship that didn’t require any more work than filing papers and fetching drinks.

You might think that the clan children would be more likely to actually try for an internship where they actually learned something, but for the most part, they just went for the internship where they had a family member working and left it at that. It was the civilian children that would really benefit from the program, especially if they didn’t make it far as a genin, but most were supremely unmotivated.

Sakura wasn’t, but she was pushed to the back of the line by most of the girls anyway.

Ino stuck with her at the end of the line, and so by the time they made it to the listings, there were only two left. Torture and Interrogation… and Corpse Disposal.

Ino looked at Sakura with guilt in her eyes, and Sakura smiled back sadly. 

Sakura added her name to the last remaining portion on the list, adding a little heart to the end out of habit. It did look a bit macabre, but she couldn’t change it, just as she couldn’t change her choice of internship.

The internships took place twice per week during school time, taking up one of the additive courses. Since so many students were out during the same periods, the teachers had let all of the students know that they were to share their notes amongst themselves. 

Unfortunately, Ino wasn’t a part of Sakura’s class that year, which meant that no one would give her their notes. But it was fine. She would cope.

~:~

Sakura wore the same red qipao that she did every day to the first internship meeting. It was comforting. If the only thing she could control about her appearance- _ ugly, huge forehead, stupid hair _\- was her clothing, then so be it. She’d look the way she wanted.

The man at the front desk looked up, scanning her up and down before shrugging. “I guess you’ll work.”

He stood, beckoning her over into the back.

“You know, they say red is good for hiding bloodstains,” he said, casting another disparaging glance down at her clothes, “but black works much better. And it goes with everything.”

Sakura crossed her arms. “I like my dress.”

“And it’s very nice, but we’ll be getting rid of corpses here, not having a fashion show. Make sure to wear something more appropriate next time.”

Sakura looked at his outfit, which was a standard black jumpsuit with a heavy-duty apron and gloves that he plucked from a closet and pulled on. He pulled a smaller set from the same closet, holding the apron against her for a second to check the size before pushing it into her arms. 

She followed obediently as he walked her through the building, from the decontamination showers to the basement access to the hospital and T&I, where the other departments sent the bodies of patients or prisoners who had expired and were no longer useful. The ones with kekkai genkai went to research labs and those with families were released to be buried, but for the most part, they came to the department for disposal.

There was another entrance, where shinobi came to dispose of their kills, often contained in the recognizable black sealing scrolls used to store corpses. With those, they were also to check for possible bounties and gained those as bonuses. Considering that they didn’t get paid much, they were quite thorough in bounty-checking.

“I’ll be your supervisor, but all you really need to do is, well, dispose of the bodies,” he added absentmindedly, “They give us a lot of leeway, so feel free to do whatever you see fit with them. On each body, there’ll be a report- cause of death, pre-existing conditions, the usual. Any questions?”

“Yeah, a few. First, what’s your name? You never actually introduced yourself.”

“Masashi Tadayuki. Head of the department, if you could call it one. There’re only about four of us. We’re like the research department, but we’re only able to use corpses so most just go there instead. And then we tend to attract the… wrong crowd.”

“You talkin’ about us?” A new voice called, sounding more humored than offended by a potential insult. He was a muscular blonde man with shoulder-length hair, who stood with a confidence that seemed to lean more towards cockiness.

“Fortunately, no,” Masashi-san teased dryly, turning to the new arrival and smacking him lightly on the shoulder, “I’m showing around our intern right now. Fresh meat, meet Seshu Tatsuo. He’s the knife expert around here.”

He smirked and extended a hand. “Really, I’d call it dismemberment, not just knives.”

Sakura practically sparkled with glee. She surveyed his person, making note of the multitude of knives on his person, from the shoulder holsters to the side holster attached to his belt that held at least 10 knives, to the bone saw that she could see on his back.

She clasped his hand in hers and shook it exuberantly.

“You look so cool! I’m Haruno Sakura, by the way,” She said, a grin plastered on her face, “It’s nice to meet you, Seshu-san!”

The man grinned back at her, flashing just a hint of his rather sharp teeth. “So we’ve got a kiddo that really appreciates the finer things in life, do we? Much better than that last one, wouldn't know a good wazikashi from a butter knife.”

She would have loved to stay and talk to the man, but the department head was already pulling her away.

Masashi-san guided her to a large area of body refrigerators and a row of the body-sealing scrolls. There were what seemed to be autopsy tables in front, as well as several strange, segmented off stations.

“I'm in charge of cremation here, as I'm the best at fire techniques,” Masashi-san stated, waving it off as if cremating dead bodies was something one did every day, which was fair, as he did. 

He gestured to one of the strange-looking tanks, “This is where Maki does his experiments. He works with what we’ve generally labeled ‘exposure’, doing research into the effects that certain climates, flora, fauna, etcetera, have on decomposition and the human body in general.”

“And he’s not in R&D? I thought they loved people like that,” Sakura asked, genuinely puzzled. It sounded much more like research with a small amount of actual disposal rather than the other way around. R&D was known for having tons of random scientists who spent more time researching than developing.

“Yeah, well. The R&D department happened to be full of xenophobic dickwads, so I'm here instead,” A man said as he stepped out from one of the exposure tanks. Sakura jolted slightly, not having noticed him there earlier.

She only needed to look at him to guess the source of their xenophobia. Given his skin tone, which was even darker than hers, Maki was at least partially from Kumo.

He was a tall, lean man. His height became more apparent as he strode over to the pair, tucking the pen he was writing with behind his ear.

“I’m Warabi Maki. Once you find your own niche, you'll likely be hanging around here with me and Tatsuo, unless your niche is something that requires special equipment. Hama’s got her own place because she uses acids, and it would suck if one of us knocked into something and ended up made into soap or whatever she does with the remains.”

Sakura shook his hand. “Is there anything… off-limits, disposal method-wise?”

Warabi-san tapped his lip, thinking intently, “Not really? Here we’ve got even fewer taboos than most other shinobi, so it’s pretty much whatever. It would be good if you let the rest of us know what you're doing so we don't accidentally mess up your system once you have one…”

Masashi-san interrupted, “The rule is that it’s not necrophilia if they were alive when you started, but there won't be anything living for that line to work.”

Sakura blushed in shock. She had heard that rule before, but only in the dirty jokes that Kiba often spread, and not actually as a possibility.

“In the past, we've had some pretty interesting solutions. One guy was fond of promession- freeze-drying, basically. We’ve had someone use the bodies as fertilizer, a couple of cannibals, quite a few fire users, cremation is an easy way to go… there have been a couple that took either the ashes or some form of the corpse and turned it into art, I know there was at least one glassblower, a couple of weapons smiths that infused the iron in the blood into their weapons, and a guy who mixed ashes into his clay for his pottery. It's a mix.”

The options seemed fascinating and all, but Sakura was rather stuck on his third option. Cannibalism.

She probably wouldn't have acted on it if it hadn't been brought up by someone else while she was in the position to choose, but she was. And that option seemed mighty… tasty, if you will, to her.

But cannibalism was objectively bad, right?

Oblivious to her inner turmoil, Masashi-san continued the tour.

“I might as well introduce you to the rest of the gang. Hama should be over in her lab…”

Sakura followed him to a small but well-ventilated room. Masashi-san knocked on the door sharply until a short woman wearing full-body protective gear opened it.

“What the fuck do you wa- Oh. Come to bring me the fresh meat, have you?” She asked, but it seemed like more of a statement of fact than a real question, “Yay, we’ve met now. Go away.”

The door slammed shut in their faces.

“Sorry about that, she’s always pissy when her wife is off on a mission. That's Uwabami Hama, our acid expert.”

They circled back towards the entrances, where she was given a desk. “For now, we’ll have you on sorting duty. Check the body for bounties, then distribute them to each member. For the most part, you’ll just need to sort them out evenly, but some of us have preferences and stuff, so we’ve got a cheat sheet over here.”

Sakura peered at the slightly crumpled sheet of paper that had some questionable stains on it, reviewing the information presented.

She spent the next hour just sorting corpses and delivering them to various people, up until Seshu-san walked over at around noon. He leaned over her desk to ruffle her hair, “We’re all headed out to lunch right now, kiddo, so you’re coming with us. It’s team bonding time!”

Sakura grabbed her bag and followed him out to the main entrance, where the others were waiting.

“We’re heading to Yakuniku Q,” Warabi-san let her know.

The somewhat ragtag group made their way to the restaurant at a rather slow, meandering pace, as Seshu-san and Uwabami-san spent the entire time arguing, 

  


~:~

Sakura came back to school happier than she had in a long while. She had something to look forward to every week, something new with interesting people and new possibilities.

She knew she wasn't very strong or physically fit or good at ninjutsu, but the CDU offered her a new path if she failed to make the cut as a shinobi.

Ino looked at her suspiciously, no doubt wondering how something as icky as corpse disposal was making her as gleeful as she was.

“They’re really nice over there!”

“Really? All I had at T&I were some weirdoes. It was sooo boring. My dad didn’t want me to be _ exposed _ to anything, which meant that I was stuck just delivering coffee and filing reports. And he’s not even in that division!”

Sakura laughed, and tugged Ino to the playground, ready for anything that might come her way.


	2. A Curious Continuation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura meets another awkward, cannibalistic child. It's Gaara, duh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really wanted my feral murder babies to meet lmao. Also, the removal of honorifics and surnames was mostly intentional to show that in this time skip Sakura and her fellow CDE members have gotten closer, and also due to a lack of wanting to write them in. 
> 
> If you’ve forgotten who the CDE members are already or I didn’t do a good enough job making them distinct (or you just want to know a bit more about them), I’ve included short descriptions at the end.

Sakura’s doing well. She had one whole friend and four relatively-friendly coworkers, an internship that was turning out quite well, and a steady supply of meat for when her parents went off on business trips and left Sakura alone.

Things were going well for her, so of course, her parents had to show back up at home.

Now, Sakura loves her parents. Really, she does. But her parents are merchants first and foremost, and so Sakura just tends to come second to business.

She came home from her internship one night, unlocking the door and heading to the kitchen on autopilot only to freeze at the sight of her parents setting out dishes on the table.

“Okaa-san, Otou-san, you’re home early!” She exclaimed, throwing herself into her father’s arms. He hugged back warmly and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“We had the opportunity to get back early, so we took it. We don’t get to see our precious little girl very often!”

“Otou-san, I’m almost 10 years old! I’m not a little girl anymore!”

“You know you’ll always be my little girl!”

Sakura’s Okaa-san laughed at the face she made at that and put down the dish that she was holding to give Sakura a big hug. “We made your favorites to celebrate,” She said, snapping Sakura out of her pouting.

They sat down and dug into their food, trading stories of travels for ones of Sakura’s schooling and internship. Sakura avoided saying exactly where her internship was at, as well as the fact that her only real friend was Ino, but she mustered enough things to talk about so that it wasn’t stilted.

About halfway through the meal, Sakura’s mother sent a meaningful glance at her husband before placing her hand over Sakura’s. Sakura paused in her eating to look at her mother, as the atmosphere was serious all of a sudden.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, honey, we were just thinking about something and wanted to get your opinion.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Well, it’s not very fun for any of us when we go off and have to leave you here alone, and given that you’ve gotten quite a bit older… We were thinking about taking you along with us for our next trip to Suna.”

“Really? But what about school, and my internship?”

“It’ll only be for two weeks. We’ll clear it with your teachers and your employers, so don’t worry about that,” she explained, “And you still are in line for inheriting the business. So just in case this whole ninja thing doesn’t work out, it’s best to know a bit about the business.”

Sakura flushed red. She was going to be a shinobi, it wasn’t just a phase that she’d get over and then go and take over the family business. She had cousins for that, some of whom were probably desperate for the position.

“I’ll… I’ll think about it,” Sakura responded, quietly excusing herself from the table.

~:~

The next day, Sakura headed to Ino’s house to ask for advice. She walked through the flower shop, waving at Ino’s father, and headed upstairs. She found Ino sprawled out on the couch, and chose to wake her up by collapsing on top of her.

Ino woke up with a grunt, and quickly got revenge by digging her fingers into Sakura’s stomach, tickling her and causing both of them to fall in a squirming pile on the floor.

“What are you doing here?” Ino asked as soon as they had both regained their breath.

“Mama and Papa want me to go with them to Suna this trip. They say I’m getting older and I’ll be running the business in no time… What if I don’t _ want _ to run the business? They never ask me what I want to do.”

“You should go, though. Even if you aren’t going to be a merchant, you could get some useful skills for your future career… And Daddy always says that anything you can get out of the other villages is a good thing for Konoha! Wait, that was about interrogation… Eh, same thing. We’re going to be kunoichi soon!”

“So I should go?”

“If you want to? I think it’ll be good for you.”

With one person’s opinion decided, Sakura just had to get the rest. The CDE wasn't far from the flower shop, which was located pretty close to the T&I headquarters for ease of access to the department head.

Sakura wasn't sure how the others would react. They had gotten closer in the months that they had been together, but she'd never gone away before.

She tried Tatsuo first because she expected him to be the most encouraging. “I- my parents want me to go with them to Suna for the next couple of weeks-”

“Oh, cool. Can you get me some bone saws? I'm running out and it's cheaper to just buy it in Suna.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Nah. It’ll be a good opportunity for you to have some new experiences, make some allies in other countries, whatever.”

“But- I won’t be there to assist you guys for the whole time I’m gone!”

“Don’t worry about it. We all love you, but we were working alone for years before you got here. We can manage a couple weeks.”

Sakura relaxed, but then stiffened back up. “ I mean, you guys still want me around, right? I’m not taking up space?”

“No, of course not. And even if you did end up not helping much, even Hama’s got a soft spot for you by now.”

“That was… the worst reassuring speech I’ve ever heard,” Hama spoke from where she stood, “But you’re doing well kid. Also, I’ll give you the money to buy some corrosive poison for me, because I’m not a leech like Tatsuo.”

“Hey, I was going to give her money!”

“Sure you were,” She turned back to Sakura, continuing as if Tatsuo had never interrupted, “It’s got a fancy scientific name that I'll write down for you, but most just call it Dragon Piss. I’d go and get it myself, ‘cause they give you discounted rates if you can properly terrify them into submission, but we’re short-staffed as it is and I save all my trips for less hectic months.”

Sakura nodded and took the money that the two handed her, making a mental note to buy those two things.

~:~

“Okay Sakura, we’ve got to go negotiate the terms of this trade deal. It tends to take a long time so we won’t bring you along for this part.”

Sakura was both relieved at not having to sit through another long meeting, and slightly scared at the prospect of being left in Suna alone for the better part of the day.

“What am I going to do while you’re gone?” She asked hesitantly, hoping that they had a plan for her other than going out and making friends.

“Well, we thought that you could go out and play with some of the other children here. You might see some of your cousins around as well! We’ll be back by dinnertime.”

Oh. 

Sakura could work with that, using that time to buy some things for the others at the CDE. It probably wouldn’t be pleasant to have to try and haggle without her parents around to help. That, and the very idea of interacting with other kids, no matter what Ino said about information gathering, didn't sound pleasant.

There was a reason that Ino was her only friend, and that whole experience wasn’t something that she’d like to see if Suna kids would repeat. 

As her parents left the hotel, Sakura began her search for the right shops that would sell what she was looking for. The weapons shops for Tatsuo were far easier to find right off the street, but she had to inspect them carefully in order to find one thats quality reflected Tatsuo’s love of knives and other assorted pointy things.

For every store, Sakura tested their blades as best as she could, using techniques that Tatsuo had taught her when she spent time sharpening his blades. The first couple of stores were rather disappointing given the prices shown, with products that seemed more flashy than actually well made.

Sakura walked out of the third store with a frown. There had to be a half-decent weapons shop _ somewhere _ in Suna. Or were they just showing her the cheap and pretty stuff because she was a civilian child? A civilian child from another village no less. Ugh.

While she walked to the next store on her list, plotting her strategy for getting shopkeepers to take her seriously, Sakura heard a scream coming from a nearby alleyway. 

Her first instinct was to run away, but morbid curiosity and a fair bit of stupidity had her peeking around the corner.

About halfway down the alley was another kid, with a shock of red hair not unlike her own pink. While that might not be extremely out of the ordinary, the fact that he seemed to be munching on a human skull was.

Sakura made a noise in the back of her throat and the boy whipped his head around to face her, sand particles swirling around him in a flurry.

“You shouldn’t eat the brain, it might kill you,” Sakura called, eyes stuck on the blood dripping from his mouth. She’d never met someone like her before, and it would suck if he died of a prion disease.

He and the swirling sand around him paused, as if trying to understand her words. “Why… would that kill me?"

“Infectious particles in the brain mess with your nervous system and after like 10 years or more you die.”

“I cannot die. I will be fine.”

“Really? Cool.”

“I am a monster. I live only for myself.”

“You’re not a monster for eating people. It’s pretty efficient! Do you work for Suna’s CDU? It’s a pretty good schtick because there’s always fresh meat in shinobi villages, so you don’t even have to get it yourself.”

The boy paused in consideration, before speaking up again. “I will think about it.”

~:~

Sakura ended up with a shadow as she made her way through weapons stores and the occasional apothecary. By the third time that she caught him disappearing from sight with a swirl of sand, she called him over.

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you need to know?”

“Because I like to know the names of my friends, and if you’re going to keep following me around, we should be friends.”

“I have never had a friend. My name is Gaara,”

“I’m Sakura! And I only have one friend. Her name is Ino, and we’re both from Konoha.”

Sakura regaled him with tales of Ino as they walked, as he didn’t seem to want to contribute to the conversation. But that was fine, because Sakura could talk enough for the both of them.

~:~

The next store that Sakura entered seemed promising. It was a well-kept apothecary, and the ingredients and mixtures were stored properly the same way that Hama’s poisons and acids were.

Unlike all other stores, the shop owner went pale and gave her exactly what she wanted immediately after asking, for a discounted rate no less. She frowned to herself, but continued to another weapons shop.

The next shop owner also reacted similarly, pulling out his best stock and showing her his highest quality items. Sakura turned to look at something behind her, and noticed Gaara standing behind her, still covered in blood, with copious amounts streaked around his mouth and jaw.

She pulled out a handkerchief and her small water pouch and used both to gently scrub the blood from around his mouth.

When she turned around, the shopkeeper looked even more close to passing out. Huh, she thought that he’d be less afraid without a reminder that Gaara had eaten someone. Suna people were weird.

He gave her an even better discount after that.

She took hold of Gaara’s hand after making her purchases and they left together for the nearest playground.

It was small, with a simple setup of swings, monkey bars, and a slide. There was only one other kid nearby, and she hurried the other way when they came close. 

Sakura saw Gaara’s head droop slightly at that, so she distracted him by dragging him to the swings. “Here!” she exclaimed, “You get on the swings, and I'll push you so you can go higher!”

Gaara obliged, but when she pushed him he sat still, not moving his legs or anything.

“You gotta move your legs!” Sakura scrambled over to the other swing to demonstrate. “When you go up, you extend them out, and when you go down, you curl ‘em back. It's how you go faster ‘n higher!”

All of a sudden, she felt a gentle push on her back, like someone was trying to push her on the swings. She whirled around, hoping it was her Otou-san and not a random stranger or something.

But all she saw behind her was sand. It rose up from the ground like it was a creature and not just a bunch of sand, and there was a similar tendril pushing Gaara, who was trying her method of swinging calmly on her right.

“I can push both of us like this,” he whispered, eyes round and doe-like.

“This is you?”

“Yes. I can make the sand go like this.”

The sand rose up in a wave, and gently shoved her, starting her moving again. Sakura giggled at the sensation, as now that she knew what it was, it didn’t really feel like hands at all. 

It was nice not having to push anyone, and as she continued to laugh out loud as she swung higher and higher, Gaara began to let out the faintest of noises, barely even a laugh.

Sakura decided that she wanted to get that out of him as many times as she could before she returned to Konoha. 

~:~

The next meeting that Sakura went to with her parents also went smoother than expected, with a few of the guild masters taking one look at Sakura and paling, before whispering, panicked, into their compatriots’ ears.

Her parents didn’t seem to notice, and neither did Sakura, really, all of them busy finding someplace for Sakura to sit so that she wouldn’t bother anyone else. She ended up spending the meeting next to them anyway, as the few extra seats near other guilds had mysteriously disappeared before she could sit there.

The meeting was a boring one for Sakura, and halfway through, she quietly excused herself to go play with Gaara, to which her parents smiled and shooed her away easily. Unbeknownst to the Haruno family, several prominent businessmen and traders let out sighs of relief as soon as she left. 

~:~

Sakura checked her money pouch the next day and realized that she had more than enough money to buy the others gifts as well.

Tadayuki-san might appreciate some new accelerant of some sort, but she’d also throw in some food for them all. 

Suna had a lot of interesting foods, full of spices and textures that she was only really able to eat when her parents brought her back presents from Suna, as there weren’t any good Sunese restaurants in Konoha.

And for Maki-san… well, Sakura was sure she’d find something good for him if she kept looking. 

On the way, Sakura had stopped in a small shop that sold charms and other trinkets, just little things. She didn’t find anything for Maki-san, but a bright orange charm, meant to be tied onto something or added to a bracelet, caught her eye. It made her think of Naruto, not a surprise given that he was always very loudly orange, but she didn’t even consider buying it until the shopkeeper spoke.

She was an older woman, whose face was lined with many wrinkles, most of which implied that she had smiled a lot of times in her lifetime.

“I’ve always thought that if you find something that reminds you of someone, you should give it to them,” she said in a low, husky voice.

“How’d you know I was thinking about someone?”

“I can just tell, little one,” she laughed, head tossed back lightly, “You know what? You can take it, so long as you give it to the person you’re thinking of.”

Sakura blinked, picking up the charm. It was a shooting star, painted a flashy orange color. She pocketed it, but she paid anyway, dropping several coins on the counter. “Thank you, obaa-san!” Sakura called, hurrying out the door.

Well, she guessed that meant that she’d have to talk to Naruto soon. It wasn’t that she disliked him or anything, he was just… loud. She’d think about what to say later. For now, all she had to do was play with Gaara and find Maki-san a gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if anyone noticed, but I was thinking about the suffixes that would be attached to all of the countries and I decided on Sunese rather than Sunan just bc I thought it worked better. Konohan is fairly established but I kinda wanted to change it up for the other countries to show some more diversity. Basically my thoughts went:  
Konoha- Japan?  
Iwa- China but only the mountainy bits  
Suna- Vague Middle Eastern  
Ame- vaguely south asian  
Kiri- Vaguely Indian  
Kumo- Base geography off Mount Kilimanjaro?  
Kusa- Maybe South America due to forests?  
Taki- Southeast Asia  
Uzushio- Polynesian  
Yu- Vaguely Korean maybe?  
Which is obviously reductive and kinda makes no sense that all of these cultures would develop so close to each other but its fine, they’re ninjas.
> 
> Also, I said something about OC descriptions, so I'll just dump my own info sheet here.
> 
> Masashi Tadayuki- Fire Jutsu. His father was an Uchiha bastard child and his mother was an Aburame. His family is a bit of an odd combo, but he makes it work.
> 
> Uwabami Hama- Acid. After an accident that left her scarred and without her left calf, she decided that the best way to get over her aversion was to dive right in. Not literally.
> 
> Warabi Maki- Exposure. Mother from Kumo, father from Konoha. The only one with any brain cells left. He tried to join the Research and Development Department, but was an outcast due to his heritage and so he left to join the Corpse Disposal Unit.
> 
> Seshu Tatsuo- Dismemberment. A Konoha native whose parents retired to Yugakure, and he spends most of his time attempting to figure out new ways to use the copious amount of knives that he stores on his person.
> 
> Haruno Sakura- Cannibalism. The daughter of the heads of a Suna-based merchant clan, she joins the CDU as an intern and ends up staying for the free meals.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any questions, comments, or just any thoughts at all, feel free to leave them below!


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